


Dreaming Through Death

by Stripe



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dream Bubbles, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-09
Updated: 2014-01-09
Packaged: 2018-01-08 04:04:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1128114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stripe/pseuds/Stripe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jadesprite, before she became a sprite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreaming Through Death

**Author's Note:**

  * For [digimaniac33](https://archiveofourown.org/users/digimaniac33/gifts).



> I absolutely loved the concept of a fic that explored Jadesprite's time in the dreambubbles - there's a lot more potential to explore than I have time to cover in this fic, but I tried to hit upon as many different points as I could!

Perhaps it's in the nature of being a dreamself, but the moment that Jade wakes in a dream bubble, she knows she must be dead. She finds herself among the golden spires of Prospit, floating as she always did, but there's something so distinctly _wrong_ about it that she can't help but be uneasy.

And then the memories come flooding back in - of Prospit burning, Prospit falling, John falling-

"John!"

Jade turns in every which way, trying to find the chain that leads to his tower, but the layout of Prospit is wrong somehow. She recognizes every building and every structure, but she's sure that they didn't used to be arranged that way. Was the royal treasury really next to the postal service?

She begins to fly up, up as far as she can go, but the higher she gets, the more clearly she can hear the chattering whispers of /something/ that causes her stomach to instinctively lurch. She glances backward and sees Them - countless eyes and appendages of all sorts, writhing, laughing - and a primal sort of terror shoots up her spine. She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be this far up.

Jade descends as quickly as possible and finds that the closer to the ground she is, the less she can see and hear of them. It seems walking is the best option for now.

She continues the search for the towers and for John, though it seems fruitless. The streets are empty in this twisted version of Prospit; Jade supposes the carapaces must have a different afterlife. It means there’s nobody to ask for help, not even anybody to smile at as she hovers past. It’s lonely and awful, and the thought occurs to her that she may truly be alone here. For the rest of her afterlife - for eternity. 

Dread begins to sink in, and she starts to actively seek out other people, other life - anything. Jade opens doors that lead to the wrong rooms and runs inside, shouting for _somebody_ , is anybody home? It's only without actively seeking out John that she actually finds his room. It seems ten times bigger without him actually in it, even asleep, but she recognizes his scrawling across the wall, and her counter-scrawling. "wake up john!!!" reads her own handwriting. "you can do it!!!"

She'd been so optimistic then, and it hurts to see it now, remembering all of the things she wanted to show him, all of the things they were going to do together. She curls up on his bed and cries into his sheets because she failed him, she failed him, she failed…

 

The passage of time is off, but Jade isn't sure if it's because of her grief or simply due to the nature of the afterlife. She doesn't know how long she lies in John's bed, wrapped up in his ghost bed sheets. Seconds, maybe, or hours, or weeks. 

But finally, she hears voices.

"I'm not sure if I've ever seen this version of Prospit before," says one, clearly female, though there's something strange about the way she speaks - foreign, maybe. "Perhaps it's from a newer session."

"You sure about that, Porz?" comes another voice, and Jade rolls her face away from John's pillow to take a look. They're not in sight yet, but they're close. "It all looks like the same old gold business to me."

"Trust me, after several hundred sweeps of wandering Prospit memories, I think I've come to be well-acquainted with- oh."

Finally the two voices come into sight, and Jade is taken aback by the sight of them. They're clearly non-human, and not carapacian either. Both of them have grey skin, black hair, blank white eyes, and a pair of orange horns set atop their head, though there the differences end. The one on the right - "Porz," she guesses - is covered with tattoos and piercings, wearing a shapely dress, while the one on the left is in some teal and red jumpsuit, carrying a skateboard under her arm. 

They, at least, seem just as taken aback by her. 

"What's that?" asks the teal and red one, who steps closer, curious.

" _Who_ , more like," her friend corrects her. "Judging by your Prospit attire, you must be a player, correct?" 

"Uh?" Jade doesn't quite know how to respond, starts rubbing at her eyes instead to try and get rid of the tears. 

"Oh, I'm sorry dear- are you freshly dead?" Jade doesn't know what else to do but nod. "Don't worry. It's actually quite pleasant here, once you get used to it."

Jade sniffs. "Where's here?"

"The dream bubbles. It's an afterlife for those associated with Sburb, regardless of what session they are from. I don't recognize your species however..."

"I'm a human," Jade offers, sitting up. It's easier to focus on something other than crushing loneliness with somebody to talk to. "What are you two?"

"Trolls," says the one with the piercings. Jade perks up a bit before her face twists into a frown. 

"I know you," she says. "You and your friends have all been hassling me on pesterchum!"

Both trolls exchange bewildered expressions. "What's pesterchum?" asks the teal one.

"The chat system!" Jade exclaims. "You know, carcinoGeneticist, arachnidsGrip, adiosToreador... You guys!"

"I'm not sure I know anybody with those handles," the pierced one says slowly. "Perhaps you're thinking of another group? As far as I know, nobody in our session was in contact with another species..."

Jade studies both of them intently for a moment before deciding that they aren't lying. They certainly don't seem intent on yelling at her like CG was, if nothing else. She allows herself to relax. "Then I guess that's alright then. Maybe we can be friends! My name is Jade."

"Hey, Jade! My name's Latula, and this here's Pornstar!"

" _Porrim_ , please."

Latula laughs uproariously, and Jade finally finds it in her to smile. 

 

Porrim and Latula show Jade around, leading her out of her own empty memories of Propsit and into their own. She meets their other friends, all trolls, all wildly different. She gets along well with both Porrim and Latula, as well as Meulin, even if the deaf troll has a habit of shouting when she gets excited. Aranea is nice enough, but far too wordy in a way that reminds her painfully of Rose. She learned long ago to avoid Cronus at all costs.

"Eleven?" she asks, once she's met them all. "Sburb can be played with an odd number?"

Porrim hums. "I suppose it could, though we did actually have one more. She was our leader, in some sense. She has yet to make an appearance, however."

"What happened to her, then? Where is she?"

“Oh, she died with the rest of us. In fact, she was the one who finished us off. But the dream bubbles don’t seem to follow much rhyme or reason when it comes to linear progression. All of us found ourselves here at different intervals. I suspect she’ll make herself known any day now. Undoubtedly her first course of action will be to stir up trouble.” Porrim smiles fondly. “I think you’d like her.”

Jade laughs. “I think I would too! So- that means that just because you died at the same time as somebody doesn’t mean you’ll show up at the same time?”

“Not at all. Why do you ask?” Porrim gives her a pointed look. “Is there somebody you’re waiting for?”

“No! Well- yes. Maybe a little? Just- we both died when our Prospit got destroyed, so I thought he’d be here with me, but…”

“Still no sign of him?” she guesses. “Don’t worry. I’m certain he’ll turn up soon enough. In the meantime, it will do you no good to worry about him. You two will meet again in due time, I’m sure. I suggest you explore for now. There are so many interesting memories to go through. In fact, I believe I should take you to my Land when we have the chance…”

 

And explore Jade does. She no longer minds the temporary loneliness of an empty memory, knowing that there are other inhabitants of the bubbles; she just needs to find them first. 

So she travels everywhere she can, meets anybody that she can find. She travels across a world with the ground made of sugar cubes, and another one made of brains. She goes through caves and crosses oceans, sometimes with a companion, sometimes just on her own. It reminds her of her time spent on Prospit, only instead of being confined to the golden moon, she can go anywhere. She can visit Derse, she can descend onto the battlefield, she can visit alien planets that were never part of the game, and if she ever feels too homesick, it's just a bit of directed memory that will bring her back to her tower.

She runs into countless trolls. She runs into all eleven of Porrim and Latula's friends multiple times, sometimes even running into multiple versions of them at once. (She prays to the tentacle gods above that she never has the misfortune of finding two Kankris together again.) She eventually finds other trolls too - the ones she knew when she was alive. She runs into arsenicCatnip and roleplays with her and gallowsCalibrator. She comes across a few robotic versions of apocalypseArisen, who she finds she can relate to in a way. After all, she used to have her actions on earth relegated to a Jadebot. It's kind of the same.

Yet some part of her still misses her friends - her pre-death friends, John and Rose and Dave. She never stops looking for them, really, or hoping that she can find them. Some part of her knows that she shouldn't hope to find Dave or Rose. It means the session failed, probably. But she finds she doesn't care - the afterlife is _great_ , what did a successful session matter? They could be happy here, all of them, if she could just find them...

 

Jade finds herself in a new world, one she doesn't recognize. It's frosty and cold and little purple humming birds fly around, and she's thankful for the winter outfit Porrim created for her - a big green scarf that she can bury her face in with a stylish coat and fur-lined boots. Yet despite the cold, she can't help thinking this place is beautiful. She'd always wanted to play in the snow, and now she has the perfect opportunity! She wonders whose memory could have spawned this place, wonders if they would build a snowman with her. 

"Fuck- Jade?"

She jumps at the sound of her name, coming from a voice that's familiar, yet utterly odd to her. She's never heard a human voice in person before - at least, not since her grandfather died, and that's so long ago that it doesn't count. Jade turns, long hair whipping behind her. 

Standing there can be none other than Dave Strider - who else would wear those shades? He's wearing a lime green suit that must have been alchemized at some point, but she doesn't remember it. She smiles upon seeing him, bounds over for a tight hug. He hesitantly returns it. 

"Dave! I'm so happy to see you!"

"Jade," he says again, not sounding nearly as happy as her. "You- what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here- your eyes are blank, so you have to be dead - did alpha Dave fuck up?" He looks her over, worry clear behind his shades.

"Shh." Jade places a finger to his lips. "I'm alright! Prospit fell on me, but I'm alright! Everything is awesome here, there's so many people for you to meet! And now you can show me your place and spin some sick beats for me in person, like you promised!"

Dave stares at her long and hard for a good while before some sort of understanding seems to cross his face. "Crushed by _Prospit_ ," he mutters to himself, letting out a sigh of relief. "Right. OK, sure. Lemee show you how a Strider spins his beats, faster than those fucking tea-cups at Disney World, better take an anti-nausea pill before stepping on this ride..."

 

After that encounter, she meets many more Daves, and realizes what's happening in her session. Dave is the time player, and he's trying to keep everybody from dying, sacrificing himself in the process. This one died trying to keep a carapace from stealing some important journals. This one died to save John from a stray imp. (What a shame, Jade thinks, that his sacrifices are all inevitably in vain.)

She meets Rose once, though the encounter is odd - she isn't quite the snarky, long-winded girl that Jade used to know. Instead she speaks in tongues, skin as gray as a troll's and hair as white as snow. Jade leaves her be after a few moments, not wanting to frustrate either of them with a one-sided conversation, and as she leaves to another bubble, she thinks she can see Rose looking up to the sky, whispering to whatever lives up there.

There's still no sign of John. But he'll turn up eventually, Jade thinks to herself. He definitely will. So she won’t worry.

 

The last location she visits is undeniably the most interesting of the bunch. 

It doesn’t look like anybody’s land or like anybody’s home planet - it’s completely pitch black, with the only source of light coming from an oddly glowing spiral on the ground. On an impulse, she walks along the spiral, one foot in front of the other, as though she might fall out of existence if she steps on the dark parts. It’s fun, in an odd way. Like trying to step from brick to brick on a paved Prospitian road.

As she nears the center, she starts to look around - the bubble isn’t very big, but she seems to be alone. “Hello?” she calls out to the emptiness - she can’t even see the horrorterrors above. “Is anybody home?” 

There’s no response for a moment other than her own voice, echoing off of the invisible walls of this place. But finally, in a small voice she doesn’t recognize, she hears - “Jade?”

She whips around to see whoever it is, and comes face to face with- a troll, she thinks, though this is the first troll she’s ever seen with white hair. She blinks. “Oh, hi!” she says. “And you know who I am?”

The troll seems to flinch at her words. “Please try and stay quiet, love,” she says. “And of course I know who you are! I’m just not certain why you’re here.”

“Well, I just sort of walked here,” Jade whispers, though she can feel an uncomfortable tugging feeling at the base of her neck. She wonders if this is some attempt by the girl to kick her out. 

“You’re simply not supposed to be here yet,” the troll girl explains. “It’s not your time.”

“My time for what?”

“For…” The other girl frowns a little, as though she can see something that Jade can’t. “Oh dear. I’m afraid our meeting’s being cut short, dear - you’re needed again.” A sad smile. “I’m so sorry.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Jade finds herself shouting despite herself, because the tugging is turning into pulling, and she’s moving backwards without meaning to. Something is dragging her away, through the bubbles, and before she knows it the strange girl is gone and replaced with searing green.

The game is cramming its knowledge into her head in the forms of 0’s and 1’s that she suddenly understands. Her hands turns into paws, her cheeks develop tufts of fur, and her legs all but vanish. 

All of it’s awful. Every single bit of it. She’s sparking at every joint, glowing, floating, mind melding with that of a dog as old as the earth itself. But the worst thing of all is the sun, ever present even with her eyes closed because it’s _part_ of her now, uncontrollable and inescapable.

And she burns.

“What did you _do_!?”


End file.
